On weekdays, Fairfax-Bolinas Road in West Marin is closed from Azalea Hill to Ridgecrest. On weekends, the road will be open, but traffic will be routed through a single-lane with controlled two-way access at milepost 5.73. See project webpage for details. Thank you for your patience while these projects progress.

Sir Francis Drake Boulevard Street Lighting

This is a completed project. You are in the Archived Projects section of the website. Active projects can be found on the Projects webpage.

Description

Overview

The County replaced street lighting related to the lights that were installed on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard (SFDB) during the Upgrade The Drake project. The replacements are intended to reduce light dispersal on adjacent properties, decrease intensity and improve the light aesthetic while maintaining lighting uniformity levels necessary for safety.

Lighting poles and fixtures in the medians were replaced along approximately one third of the SFDB corridor that was worked on as part of the Upgrade The Drake project. They were replaced with shorter, decorative poles and dimmer fixtures. The shorter poles require closer spacing to sufficiently and uniformly light the roadway, resulting in a net increase in total street lights with a net decrease of light dispersal into adjacent properties. To reduce additional cost, the placement of these decorative poles reused light foundations already installed whenever possible.

The majority of light fixtures on the remaining two thirds of the project corridor, excluding intersection safety lighting, were replaced in June 2022 with different fixtures that are dimmer and cast less light outside of the roadway and sidewalks. In addition, backlight shields were installed on sidewalk light poles to further minimize light spill into neighboring yards.

The pole replacements only occurred in median locations where a number of new poles were added. In areas where there were existing street light poles in the pre-project condition, only the fixture heads were replaced.

Funding

The project was funded by the remaining budget of the Upgrade the Drake project and the Marin County Street Light Fund.

Traffic impacts

There were limited traffic impacts associated with this lighting replacement project. The pole replacement work was phased so that the more time intensive foundation work occurred in August 2022, prior to the start of the school year when there is typically an influx in traffic.

Timeline

January 2022

  •  Safety light fixtures replaced at the eight signalized intersections along SFDB from Highway 101 and the Town of Ross.

March / April 2022

  • Replaced all remaining fixtures that operate along the corridor.
  • Lighting replacement project went to Board of Supervisors to begin contractor bidding process and procurement of decorative lighting poles.

Late July / Early August 2022

  • Start of "Phase One" of the project: Foundation and wiring work on the medians in preparation for pole replacements.
  • Some poles were removed during Phase One to accommodate the work.
  • Phase One was completed August 2022.

April - June 2023

  • April 2023: Delivery of the new,  shorter, decorative lighting poles.
  • May 2023: Start of "Phase Two" of the project. A selection of the light poles along the median were replaced with the new, shorter, decorative light poles.
  • Phase Two was completed in June 2023.
  • Please note that the project is only replacing median light poles that were added during the Upgrade the Drake project.

 

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